Ionut Neagu is the founder and CEO of Kinsta, a managed WordPress hosting provider. He has been in the web hosting industry for over 10 years and has a wealth of experience in the field. In this interview, Ionut shares his insights on the WordPress hosting industry, the challenges of running a managed WordPress hosting provider, and his vision for the future of Kinsta.
Q: What inspired you to start Kinsta?
A: I have been in the web hosting industry for over 10 years and have seen the evolution of the industry. I noticed that the WordPress hosting market was growing rapidly and that there was a need for a managed WordPress hosting provider that could provide a reliable, secure, and scalable solution. I wanted to create a company that could provide the best possible hosting experience for WordPress users.
Q: What challenges have you faced in running a managed WordPress hosting provider?
A: One of the biggest challenges we face is keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of WordPress. WordPress is constantly evolving and new features are being added all the time. We have to stay on top of these changes and make sure our platform is always up to date and secure. Additionally, we have to make sure our platform is optimized for performance and scalability.
Q: What do you think sets Kinsta apart from other managed WordPress hosting providers?
A: We are focused on providing the best possible hosting experience for our customers. We have a team of experienced engineers and developers who are constantly working to improve our platform and make sure it is secure, reliable, and optimized for performance. Additionally, we offer a wide range of features and services that are tailored to the needs of WordPress users.
Q: What is your vision for the future of Kinsta?
A: Our goal is to continue to be the leading managed WordPress hosting provider and to provide the best possible hosting experience for our customers. We want to continue to innovate and provide new features and services that will help our customers succeed. Additionally, we want to continue to grow our customer base and expand our reach to more WordPress users around the world.
vYou can find Ionut on LinkedIn or Twitter. This is our recent interview with him, as part of our Kinsta Kingpin series.
Q1: What is your background, & how did you first get involved with WordPress?
I have a software engineer background, however, I have learned along the way that I have other passions and skills, so I have used my freelancing income as a developer to start my entrepreneurial journey. I got involved seriously with WordPress after we got good rankings for “PSD to WordPress”, I was doing things before like creating some blogs, however not that serious.
Q2: What should readers know about all the stuff you’re doing in WordPress these days?
I spend most of my time nowadays mostly thinking/brainstorming about WordPress and not doing much else, sometimes I am writing about WordPress on codeinwp.com/blog/ or fixing small bits of code on our free themes at Themeisle.
Q3: What challenges did you face in getting to where you are now professionally?
Being extremely curious means that I also have a problem with learning things from others, I mean most of the time I prefer to experiment with things and do them as I think, this often means that I do lots of mistakes which put me in front of different challenges. One of the biggest challenges for me was to start generating some “product sales income,” once you reach a certain level of recurring revenue, it gives you a lot of mental freedom to build things.
Q4: Has anything surprised you while coming up in the WordPress world?
I learned a lot about empathy, privacy, and communication, coming from a marketing/SEO world where people are mostly bragging only about how much money they made, it was a bit shocking and hard to for me to adapt, however, it’s a world where I feel more comfortable.
Q5: What does the future look like for you in the WordPress world?
The biggest learning for me is how communities works, I am not sure for me personally what the future will bring in relation with the WP community, however, I am sure that I will continue to be part of such open-source communities for while.
Q6: What do you look for in a WordPress host?
I think the most important aspects is commitment, I mean for me a hosting company is like a doctor, I don’t want it to do experiments or to fail, in other words, I would like to understand how important each website is.
Q7: What do you enjoy doing when you’re away from your laptop?
I like swimming, walking and traveling, so I am trying to find enough time for all of them, I am still trying to learn how I can better disconnect from my work when I am away, which I find it quite hard sometimes.
Q8: Whom should we interview next & why?
I always like reading Syed insights and I am sure your readers will also enjoy, due to his vast amount of knowledge and understanding.
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